Margate330

Hi friends,

Ever bought a car and had buyers remorse?

A few cars made my list but the one I regretted most was the 1979 Volkswagon Rabbit Diesel, oh man what a piece of junk.
I was out of high school and earning money delivering pizzas and stopped by a "buy here, pay here" car lot and told the salesman I needed something with good gas mileage.

He walked me out the the VW diesel and said I would get 50mpg. Boom, Sold!
It was rusty and interior was in bad shape, it was a real beater in every sense of the word but hey, I'm saving gas money right?

Words can't describe how gutless the engine was.
I'll put it this way, when you switched on the AC the engine bogged down and felt like you stepped on the brakes.
Also, it was noisy and this is not good when delivering a pizza at midnight.

And- it leaked oil so bad I had to always park in the road because I was afraid of people complaining about me leaking oil on the driveway in fancy neighborhoods.

Worst part, it was just down right embarrasing to be seen in it because of the horrible condition. lol
So, I drove it a couple months and paid it off and took a big loss on it but it had to go, total ownership less than 2 months.




Ever bought a car and soon had buyers remorse???
Wasn't what you thought it would be?
Paid too much?
Other?

I like to hear your story.

AMIRZA786

Haha my first car was at 16 was a 1974 VW Rabbit, bright yellow. You name the problem, the car had it. I loved that car to death. Literally. But the only car I actually regretted buying was a 2018 10th Gen Civic Si. It was fun, but it was moody. Coming from a 2006 Camry SE with a refined 3.3L V6, I just couldn't get into a vehicle with a downsized turbocharged engine. It had more power than the Camry after a tune, but just felt really artificial. Sold it after a year and bought a 2010 IS350 Sport to replace it

Striker223

50 mpg when it works......emphasis on when it works lol!

Only car I regret buying is my Jeep since it's a drag on my sanity.

Doctj

Oh this is going to be a fun thread lol

mmarshall

More than one mention here of '70s-vintage FWD liquid-cooled VW products. I agree...they were reliability headaches, particularly the '74s and '75s. This was period when VW was switching from the old air-cooled designs (which dated back to the 1930s) to more modern ones....and those newer designs were simply not perfected yet. In the mid-70s, I worked in a building right next to a small VW dealership. Every morning, like clockwork, there was a long (Early-Bird) line of FWD VWs waiting to get into the service bay for one reason or another. The waiting-line would stretch all the way down the block and up an adjacent side street.

AMIRZA786

I would argue that VW continues to have quality issues to this day. Maybe not as severe, but nonetheless they do. I also had an 86 Rabbit GTI, and from day one it had a ton of issues, like running hot in the summer, eating a quart of oil every few weeks, electrical problems, relays and fuses burning out, vapor lock on hot days. When it was running, it was a pretty fun car, but it was far from trouble free. Exactly 10 years later I bought my first Toyota (96 Corolla LE 5 speed manual) and that car was passed down to family members until it was finally traded in for a Prius in 2016 or 2017 with nearly 200K on the odometer

jer

Try a 1987 Dodge Omni 4 door- 2 of them. Traded a Ford Van that was falling apart and a Camaro that was not exactly good for carpooling. After 2 years of living hell got rid of both and went with a Mazda B2000- great little trucklet, and an '89 Civic, which was great on MPG. One of the Omni's had water leaks, the other went in due to overheating-more than once- and actually caught on fire while pulling into the dealership. Was Soooo glad to get rid of these vehicles and what pushed us to Japanese brands, even if the Mazda was really a disguised Ford.

arentz07

I'll be honest, the car I regretted buying the most was probably the 2020 GLI. While it was a fun car, it wasn't any more fun than my 2016 GTI was, and it had rattles and creaks even when it was brand new. The tires that came on it were also horrific, so as a relatively powerful FWD car, it struggled to put the power down a lot more than the GTI did. The GTI had its own issues, and after I discovered those, I guess I had some remorse. But the fact that the GTI remained in my possession a few months longer than the GLI did shows that I actually wanted to keep it and fix said problems, at least more so than the GLI, which was, I might add, a new car with a VW factory warranty. Really, the most disappointing thing about it was that, as a driver's car, it was worse than the GTI while being newer and more expensive. I guess it was a little roomier inside, but the Golf was never cramped anyway. Not worth the trade-off.

Then I replaced the GLI with a 2021 IS 350 and haven't had a whiff of remorse. Tempted to upgrade from time to time, but I enjoy living with this car thoroughly.

mmarshall

I agree, but nothing like what we saw in the 1970s.

mmarshall

Agreed. I had a '78 Horizon (The Omni's Plymouth-twin), and my late Mom had an '82 Horizon...both were poorly-built and a mess, although the '82 had a significantly better engine. The '78 had a transplanted 1.7L VW engine......Chrysler did not have a domestic 4-cylinder in 1978, so they gave VW an assembly plant in Pennsylvania in return for 300,000 engine/transaxle-units for the Omni/Horizon.

AMIRZA786

I think there were probably lots of bad decisions made in the 70's, but yes I think we can agree this is true with VW

mmarshall

I can list several FWD domestic new cars I regretted buying in the late '70s and early '80s (Detroit's worst period, IMO)....but the 4-speed MT 1980 Chevy Citation took the cake. I won't go into the details here, because I have already covered that car in several other threads and write-ups. A real shame, too, because it was a superb idea/concept and general overall design....just extremely poorly-executed, that's all, and one of the most unreliable vehicles GM ever built. It sold over 900,000 copies in the first year..and that wasn't including the Buick/Olds/Pontiac versions.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

haven't had many cars that i regret but the worse one was a 93 Celica GT, (i liked to pretend it was a GT-4 or at the least a GT-S). it was salvaged, and the car leaked, creaked, and just wasn't right - likely due to the rebuild.
the car was fast (for the time) and i loved the pop up headlights, but what it taught me was to never buy a salvage-titled car ever again, and i haven't!

Margate330

Yeah, that's another thing.
I never got the promised 50 mpg which only mad me more angry and pee-ooohd at that lying salesman. lol
Got somewhere around 25 mpg around town with no A/c and that's the best it would do.

Did I mention when I did try to run the A/C the steering wheel shook so violently up and down I could barely hang on and while dashboard rattled & made a gosh awful racket like the whole car was coming apart as the car struggled to idle, no Ac for me- IN FLORDA SUMMER HEAT. lol

You just did extensive engine work in your JAAAAAG thread that would scare most people so you have the bragging rights on that but someday you will pay too much or not get what you were hoping for, I can promise.

Not sure about today but years ago I never met a happy VW owner. lol
Honestly I been waiting for you to have buyers remorse on your new Polestar about it costing so much and not being what you hoped for but your review has been all good and happy with your purchase best I can tell.

Love to hear the stories or maybe drop a link if you already posted about if ya want.

That's something I never did, always stayed far away from salvage cars.
Although some of the cars I've driven in the past probably should've been crushed to save someone else the aggrevation. lol

Striker223

Oh trust me. It already happened to me in a way....the ram truck in my signature is nicknamed "federal reserve" since I put a huge pile of money into it. Engine alone is $14,700, trans is $6,556 and the supercharger including it's assorted systems was $8,500.

I would not do it again and I'm now stuck with it for life. I'm still not broken even after it even with the positive gains with all my other cars.